Indigenous Motherhood in the Academy

ROBIN ZAPE-TAH-HOL-AH MINTHORN is an associate professor of educational leadership, director of the EdD program, and Director of Indigenous education initiatives at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is a citizen of the Kiowa tribe and descendent of Apache, Umatilla, Nez Perce and Assiniboine tribes. She is the coeditor of Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education and Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education (Rutgers University Press). HEATHER J. SHOTTON is an associate professor and the department chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. She is also the director of Indigenous Education Initiatives. She is an enrolled citizen of the Wichita & Affiliated Tribes. Shotton is coeditor of Beyond the Asterisk: Understanding Native Students in Higher Education, Beyond College Access: Indigenizing Programs for Student Success, and Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education (Rutgers University Press). CHRISTINE A. NELSON is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Denver in Colorado. She is of the Diné and Laguna Pueblo tribes of the southwest.

Introduction
Section I: East-Thinking
An Indigenous boy occupying the academy and the intergenerational (motherly) teachings that led him there
Christine A. Nelson (K’awaika/Diné)
“She had no use for fools”: Stories of Dibé Łizhiní mothers
Tiffany S. Lee (Diné/Lakota)
Nine Months of Indigenous Motherhood in the Academy: A Rainbow Journey From the Islands to Na’Neelzhíín
Leola Tsinnijinnie-Paquin (Diné)
M(othering) and the Academy
Susan Faircloth (Coharie Tribe of North Carolina)
My Children Are My Teachers:  Lessons Learned as a Kanaka Maoli Mother-Scholar
Nicole Reyes (Native Hawaiian)
Dreams of Hózhó Within the Womb: A Navajo Mother’s Letter to Her Newest Love
Nizhoni Chow-Garcia (Diné)
Section II: South-Planning
Hollo Micha Oh Chash:  Drawing from our Choctaw ancestors’ wisdom to decolonize motherhood within the academy
Michelle Johnson-Jennings (Choctaw), Alayah Johnson-Jennings (Choctaw, Quapaw, Sac & Fox, Miami Nations), & Ahnili Johnson-Jennings (Choctaw, Quapaw, Sac & Fox, Miami Nations)
Mvskoke Eckvlke (Muscogee Motherhood) in Academic Spaces
Dwanna L. McKay (Mvskoke)
The (Time) Line in the Sand
Miranda Belarde-Lewis (Tlingit/Zuni)
Protection and the Power of Reproduction
Shelly Lowe (Diné)
A Glint of Decolonial Love: An Academic Mother's Meditation on Navigating and Leveraging the University
Tria Blu Wakpa (Powhatan Descent)
Honoring our Relations (Collective Stories)
Section III: West-Living
Widening the Path: Reflection of Two Generations in Academia
Symphony Oxendine (Cherokee/Choctaw) & Denise Henning (Cherokee/Choctaw)
Mothers and Daughters are Forever
Renée Holt (Diné and Nimiipuu)
A Journey of Indigenous Motherhood Through the Love, Loss and the P&T Process
Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn (Kiowa/Apache/Umatilla/Nez Perce/Assiniboine)
Indigenous Motherhood in STEM
Otakuye Conroy Ben (Oglala Lakota)
Kuhkwany Kuchemayo ‘Aaknach, An Iipay Mother’s/Teacher’s Story
Theresa Gregor (Iipay/Yoeme)
Impact of a Pandemic on Indigenous Motherhood
Section IV: North-Assuring
Our Journey Through Healing
Sloan Woska-pi-mi Shotton (Otoe-Missouria/Iowa/Wichita/Kiowa/Cheyenne) & Heather J. Shotton (Wichita/Kiowa/Cheyenne)
Motherhood, Re-Imagined
Pearl Brower (Iñupiaq/Armenian/Chippewa)
Weaving Fine Baskets of Resilience:Resilient Mothering in the Academy as Kanaka Nation Building
Erin Kahunawaikaʻala Wright (Native Hawaiian)
Hā‘ena-i-ku‘u-poli: A Letter to My Daughter
Kaiwipuni Lipe (Native Hawaiian)
A Hidden Cartography: Matrilinealizing the Terrain of Academe
Charlotte Davidson (Diné)
Berries and Her Many Lectures: The Work of Storywork
Stephanie Waterman (Onondaga/Turtle Clan)
Tying The Bundle
Notes on Contributors